I thought portable apps were suppose to NOT put permanent stuff on the host system, yet abiword puts several things in the registry and also creates a folder in the person's useraccount folder (C:\Documents and Settings\accountname\AbiSuite) in which it saves the custom dictionary.
Clearly this should not happen heh.
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AbiWord: portable and yet?
November 2, 2006 - 12:17am
#1
AbiWord: portable and yet?
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Let's go through it:
1. Relax the attitude. You're getting an app for free from a volunteer. How about toning down the sarcasm a tad? You're much more likely to get an unpaid coder to help you out if you're nice to them. Make sense?
2. Are you running AbiWordPortable.exe or abiword.exe? (The first is the right one.) Which version? Did you download it from here?
3. What files and what registry keys? What operating system are you on? Where are you running it from?
There is a known issue already that only occurs if you use a custom dictionary (I don't use them, so I hadn't noticed it). If you'd searched first (as is requested in the forum guidelines), you'd have found it mentioned in this thread. The issue was brought to my attention after the last release, so it will be addressed in a later one. Was there anything besides that custom dictionary file?
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
4. All support is provided for free by many volunteers who give their own time to help people. I could just disappear if I wanted too and same for everyone else.
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
People who didn't need people needed people around to know that they were
the kind of people who didn't need people.
(Maskerade)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I wasn't implying it was just me. Just the whole volunteer thing in general. So many people using open source software just don't seem to understand it.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
We didn't make the apps though
Ah, well I guess I'm just being pedantic again.
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
People who didn't need people needed people around to know that they were
the kind of people who didn't need people.
(Maskerade)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
I know I made this mistake the first time I dowloaded a portable app (I was young and ignorant, haha), run {appname}Potable, DO NOT go inside the app folder and run it from there.
---------------
Teen1: Oh, here comes that cannonball guy. He's cool.
Teen2: Are you being sarcastic, dude?
Teen1: I don't even know anymore.
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: it goes on." -- Robert Frost
"In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life: baby ain't mine." -- Adam Holguin
I don't see anything in my post that's sarcastic to be honest, I just point out a flaw, and one of the main features of portable apps is to prevent leaving traces, and so I expected that's the first thing to adapt to make something become a portable app.
I know it can be a tricky thing to get that right of course, and I appreciate it's volunteerwork and what not, that's why I'm not being sarcastic but merely reporting it.
And yes I did download it from this site.
As for what registrykeys it creates, that's seems an odd question, obviously anybody that is involved with this project has the app and can do a search for abiword in the registry themselves.
Perhaps the issue is that it won't create stuff until you do things like add words to the dictionary and save files etcetera, and so the people working on it missed it.
Some examples:
An entry for the .zabw format (abiword compressed) and several entries for shell.
And of course the folder in your profiles.
I think the most important flaw would be the dictionary being placed in the profile folder, that means the dictionary can't be portable of course.
The few registry entries are not too critical unless perhaps the user has or will in the future install the normal abiword on their system?
BTW, for some real sarcasm: I think it's pretty silly (but not uncommon) to threathen to walk out or get all insulted when someone points out a bug, I guess volunteer coders have some selfesteem issues for I have seen the same reaction on other opensource projects.
Relax a bit, we know it's a work in progress and we know it takes time to get things right and not everybody is after your blood.
An entry for the .zabw format (abiword compressed) and several entries for shell.
That's unavoidable.
not everybody is after your blood.
That's a relief (seriously, "apparently" I am paranoid).
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
People who didn't need people needed people around to know that they were
the kind of people who didn't need people.
(Maskerade)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
The current launcher actually backs up and restores the .abw and .zabw mappings.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!
I thought it was.
----
Ryan McCue
Cube Games
People who didn't need people needed people around to know that they were
the kind of people who didn't need people.
(Maskerade)
"If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the precipitate."
Think of the tone of your original post ("I though they weren't supposed to do this. Clearly this is not the case. Heh"). We get bug reports ALL the time for things (many of which aren't bugs), but people usually take the time to point out exactly what they're seeing so that we can trouble shoot it. Didn't it occur to you that what YOU may be seeing is NOT what I am seeing? For example, in my testing, the .zabw entry is NOT left behind. The reason is that the launcher specifically backs up and restores the HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.abw, HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\.zabw and HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AbiSuite.AbiWord registry keys. AbiWord itself changes these on every launch so the launcher backs them up, launches AbiWord and then, when AbiWord is complete... restores them. So, you should NOT be seeing the behavior you mentioned.
So, once again, if you'd like us to help you out, you need to provide us with some information:
1. What version of AbiWord Portable are you using (check the help.html)
2. What operating system
3. What account level (admin, guest, limited)
4. What directories and files are you seeing left behind (and are you sure you didn't have regular AbiWord on the system at some point)
5. What registry keys are you seeing left behind
This is the type of information that we need to correctly figure out what's going on and should have been provided in your original post. We're not mind readers. You can't assume we'll have the same issues you do as every system is different. The ONLY issue known is the custom dictionary file... which will be fixed in the next release.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!